Citation

Ma C, Smith T. Am. J. Public Health 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Chenyi Ma is with the School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Tony Smith is with the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Public Health Association)

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2019.305438

PMID

31855476

Abstract

Objectives. To identify disparities in home damage from Hurricane Maria among Puerto Rican households with different housing tenure and income levels.Methods. Using household inspection data obtained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), including an ordinal damage severity measure, we used generalized ordered logistic regression to estimate the relative risks of damage severities between renters and homeowners, and between households with different incomes.Results. With respect to the FEMA damage-severity classifications of "minor," "major," and "destroyed," renters were more at risk than homeowners for both "major-or-destroyed" and "destroyed" outcomes. Similarly, lower-income households were at greater risk for both "major-or-destroyed" and "destroyed" outcomes. When we allowed for an interaction between income and housing tenure, the difference in risk of "destroyed" outcomes between renters and homeowners was substantially greater at lower income levels.Conclusions. These results provide evidence at the individual household level that renters and lower-income households are most vulnerable to hurricane damage. Our interaction results suggest that lower-income renters are particularly vulnerable to severe home damage.Public Health Implications. Disaster preparedness policies should raise structural standards for low-income housing to reduce risks of severe damage. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print December 19, 2019: e1-e7. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2019.305438).

Language: en